Summary of ideas submitted in the Education category…

• Create a National Business School/campus, in partnership with the existing NUI and Trinity Business schools.
• Create a payback scheme for third level fees.
• Create a scheme where young apprentices continue their apprenticeships with small contractors, receiving a nominal fee instead of being made redundant
• Create a website where unemployed skilled people can contact employers
• Create an integrated college and work system. Students have three days college and two days work. Worker has three days work and two days college. This would encourage constant learning.
• Create Civic Education Schemes to educate children on how their society and country works.
• Create problem solving centres staffed by trained helpers.
• Create stronger links between communities and the ITs through service learning initiatives
• Create traffic schools to teach children about road safety.
• Cut costs where appropriate but increase research facilities.
• Dedicate more teachers to schools in deprived areas
• Develop a low cost building model for schools construction.
• Developers should build schools and provide amenities for the housing estates they develop.
• Do not allow students leave the education system until the age of 21.
• Each school should start its own co-op run by the students with the guidance of the teachers.
• Educate people about disability in Ireland
• Educate people about green energy issues.
• Encourage American students to pursue their third level education qualifications in Ireland.
• Encourage businesses to invest in colleges and universities through sponsorship.
• Encourage expertise in the games industry.
• Encourage job-sharing among schoolteachers
• Encourage non-resident Irish citizens to return to Ireland to pursue post-graduate degrees, without the sting of international student fee rates.
• Encourage parents to take a more active role in their child’s school.
• Encourage people to write down their goals help them achieve them
• Encourage practical economics courses
• Encourage students abroad to study in Ireland.
• Encourage the recycling of corporate IT infrastructure into the educational system.
• Ensure education encompasses an understanding of banking and government, as well as promoting Irish culture.
• Ensure that our secondary schools’ curriculum is as business-friendly as possible
• Entrepreneurship needs to be part of the curriculum.
• Establish ‘Fusion Centres’ around Ireland to promote Lifelong Learning for older people
• Establish a ‘trade school’ with the same funding available as a normal college. This would enable people to train for a new profession. Trade wages for apprentices are prohibitive for those wishing to return in later years.
• Establish a network of free, online libraries.
• Evening/weekend courses should become the norm for everyone regardless of age.
• Every school going child should be IT-literate.